[Moogs]

I am considering using this tool as a means of quickly putting up new sites when I don't have time to code them in Coda or build them in DW, and am interested in who else here uses this tool and their experiences to date. To me, the older I get, the more frustrating the web design process gets. There's more and more under-the-hood shit to keep up with, and it takes me longer and longer to go from paper sketch to live site.

The obvious downside of Rapidweaver is that there seems to be little access to the code, though you can place your own CSS snippets, JS, etc into a page if you want. And then there's Blocks, which is a 3rd party plugin that lets you -I think- build your own templates basically, though I'm not real clear on it. The product info page isn't a big help to be honest, though MyHead software in general seems to have some interesting add-ons. Multi-tool also seems to be a way of modifying existing themes (banners only?) and "multi-themes".

The upside to Rapidweaver is that many of the themes you can buy are easily customized in terms of size of elements, color pickers for many elements, and the ability to use and place (I think) your own graphics within a page. Also the themes seem to be standards-compliant, use JS stuff for effects, and are browser tested in many cases. IOW, if I can modify a header graphic and size here or there (multi-tool I guess) and just plop my content in there, it seems like I could save myself *days* of effort and frustration. Of course with the plugins and themes I would end up spending an extra $100 probably, but depending on people's comments it might be worth it in terms of the time I save and generating "current looks" that people want (even if they're sort of tired to nerds like us).

Have you guys found Rapidweaver to be useful in your web design toolbox?

[Moogs]

Nobody? Shit... I thought Rapidweaver was a pretty popular app. Apparently not.

Well, I've been playing with the software a little bit and while I can see how it would make life easier for a web designer who was creating a quick and simple business blog for a client or whatnot... it is sort of a non-intuitive process in some respects. Too many little floating windows and pop-up inspectors. For a template-drive system it's not elegant enough / unified enough for my money.

Coda, though for an entirely different audience, is still preferable to me. I just wish they had some sort of template system like Dreamweaver or Blocks that gives you a quick starting point then lets you fill in all the color, graphics, etc the way you want it.

[AsLan^]

I use Rapidweaver to maintain my personal website (the link in my sig used to link to it before that domain name was stolen you can still locate it at 72.9.228.218).

To me it's worth it because it's really hassle free. I don't peronally enjoy working with web technologies and I don't have a great talent for web design.

As far as professional use is concerned, I don't think I recommend it for anything but the simplest of sites. Mainly because if you created a site with Rapidweaver and sold it to a client, there is no way for them to easily update the site themselves (some people might view that as a goodthing?).

However, I would think it would be very useful for prototyping websites, and getting a feel for what themes a client would be interested in, as well as positioning of elements, colors etc. For a salable product though, you'd have to go and redo it with your usual toolset.

[Moogs]

Thanks for chiming in... I was considering purchase a few 3rd party themes and whatnot but I'm not sure I want to. I have this sinking feeling I'll get half way through a re-design of one of my sites and realize it won't do what I want it to do.